The best way to learn Greek: methods ranked, plans by goal

Methods, ranked by how fast they get you speaking

1. Daily spoken conversation with correction — a tutor, a patient Greek friend, or an AI teacher. Nothing else comes close, because speaking is the skill and this is the only method that practises it.
2. A structured audio course that explains the grammar — Language Transfer is free and the best of these for Greek. It makes you understand why words change, which is what lets you build sentences you've never heard.
3. Immersion — living in Greece, Greek TV, Greek friends. Powerful but slow on its own: plenty of people live in Greece for a decade without speaking Greek, because immersion without producing is just noise.
4. Group classes — good accountability, little speaking time per person. Fine as a supplement.
5. Apps and flashcards — Duolingo, Anki, Memrise. Good for vocabulary and habit; they don't teach speaking and were never meant to.
6. Textbooks and grammar study — useful as a reference once you're speaking. As a starting point, the surest way to quit.

The plan for someone learning on their own, at home

Most people searching this are learning alone, with a job, and nobody Greek nearby. The plan that works with 20–30 minutes a day:

• Days 1–7: the alphabet (it's phonetic; one week) and Language Transfer lessons 1–10.
• Weeks 2–4: Language Transfer daily; ten new words a day by situation (our Greek vocabulary by topic is organised that way); and one spoken exchange a day, however short.
• Months 2–3: a ten-minute conversation every day about one real situation — Katerina if you have nobody to talk to, a tutor once a week if you can afford it — corrected afterwards. Grammar enters through the corrections.
• Then: add listening (Easy Greek on YouTube, Greek series with Greek subtitles) and keep the daily conversation. That's the whole method; the rest is time.

If you're going to Greece soon

Skip the grammar. Learn the 60 travel phrases with pronunciation, drill them out loud for a week, and rehearse the three situations you'll actually be in — ordering, asking the way, buying something — in short conversations. You'll get a disproportionate amount of goodwill for καλημέρα and ευχαριστώ said properly.

If your family is Greek

Heritage learners usually understand far more than they can say, and are terrified of being laughed at by relatives. The fix is to get your speaking reps somewhere safe first — a tutor, an AI teacher, a language partner who isn't your grandmother — until you've said the sentences a hundred times. Then the Sunday lunch stops being scary. Your ear is already ahead; this is about the mouth.

If you want to read, not just talk

The plan above still comes first — people who read before they can speak get stuck in the reading. Once you're conversational, add graded readers and Greek news written for learners, and keep a flashcard deck. Reading Greek is easy to start (phonetic alphabet) and a long road to finish (the vocabulary is vast); the conversation habit is what keeps you on it.

What the Reddit threads get right and wrong

Right: Language Transfer is the best free start; Duolingo alone won't get you speaking; tutors are worth the money; consistency beats intensity. Wrong: the idea that you should "finish the grammar first" before speaking, and the idea that immersion will do it for you. Speak badly, early, daily. Everything else is support.